ChiMiama is a new restaurant at the former Mercedes Headquarters in Piazza Kennedy, not far from Milan’s Trade Fair Centre, Fiera Milano. It stretches over a wide open space and Proel’s expertise was called upon to design and install a professional audio system.

The restaurant offers four “gastronomic islands” offering specialties from different cuisines and there are lots of events during the day, from breakfast to after dinner. This called for quality sound and high-performance professional products.

Each area of ChiMiama feature 18 wide-band Edge 25PW loudspeakers, hung on the walls or on the pillars, combined with two Smart SMTV15SA subwoofers. The whole system is electronically controlled by a Source AMIX4Z 4-zone mixer and an active AS025 crossover combined with a Powersoft DIGAM Q3002 4-channel power amplifier for background music as well as for service communications. The new Powersoft ARMONIA software allows remote control of the entire system.

Onelan digital signage has been installed at Illamasqua cosmetic counters both across the UK and internationally to help the year-old brand achieve differentiation in a highly competitive market.

Onelan was chosen by Illamasqua because of its scheduling capabilities and flexibility and as it fits easily into the network on each counter. Content is managed centrally by Illamasqua’s strategic and creative agency, Propaganda, and sent to each counter both in the UK and Australia.

Each counter has an exclusive internet connection for their digital signage. Onelan is used primarily to display Illamasqua’s new collection films, and model and product photography. Occasionally offers are displayed relating to seasonal holidays, such as Christmas and Valentine’s Day etc, as well as for particular regions.

Initially launched in Selfridges in Oxford Street, London, Illamasqua now have eight counters with Onelan digital signage across the UK from Selfridges in the Trafford Centre in Manchester to Debenhams in Cardiff and Belfast. In Australia digital signage has just been installed at an Illamasqua counter in Myer Sydney City. These all use Onelan’s NTB 5500, driving a variety of portrait and landscape 30in and 40in screens. Illamasqua also have counters in Dubai and the US.

BrightSign has supplied 72 solid-state digital media controllers to Ripley Entertainment, to deliver compelling exhibit displays in six of its Ripley’s Believe It or Not! museums.

The museums include the recently reopened San Francisco Ripley’s Believe It or Not! Odditorium, where 25 new BrightSign digital media controllers were added as part of a $5 million renovation. Used to make the exhibits more entertaining and more informative for visitors of all ages, BrightSign HD210 and HD410 players deliver looping HD video displays while HD810s provide playback for interactive displays.

BrightSign digital media controllers are complete, end-to-end signage solutions that include the hardware, software and networking support. Featuring a solid-state platform, BrightSign players provide Ripley museums with the reliability they need to run their displays 24/7 because there are no moving parts to fail. They’re also more affordable, since they don’t require a PC to deliver crisp, HD playback.

Hospitals are renowned for poor lighting – cold, flat, white fluorescent strips illuminating soulless corridors and consulting rooms. But in central Denmark, Silkeborg hospital has recently decided it needed to improve conditions for staff and patients, and commissioned lighting designer Rune Tønnes to help – starting out in the radiology department.

“One of the challenges,” says Tønnes, “was that, being south facing, the x-ray and MRI rooms were flooded with bright daylight. Clinicians had to pull the blinds down in order to work, but were then left with poor artificial lighting. I spoke to the operators about their needs and examined the machinery, to see how I could make their jobs easier.”

Lighting control is provided by an ETC Unison Paradigm system, which, he says, “is the only system capable of doing exactly what I wanted. The clinicians are all trained in how to use the lighting, and because each has their individual preference, they can select the colours which suit them best.” All lighting is by T5 fluorescent tubes, but Tønnes specified a mixture of warm and cool blue tubes, which can then be set as required for the specific task and is also programmed in a 24 hour sequence. The wall uplighters, meanwhile, are modified industrial RGBW fixtures.

The next phase of the project includes improved lighting for the waiting room and medical secretaries, with the same functionality of colour temperature control, task dependent lighting and daylight harvesting.